But is this advice realistic for all jobs? Here are some tips to decide whether to present your out of the box innovative ideas -- or look elsewhere for creative outlets.



(1) In some jobs, creativity will cause havoc. When I hire technies to fix some code in my website, I want them to do exactly what I ask. When my cleaning service gets creative, I cannot find anything for weeks. Airline pilots follow very specific company policies for landing on a windy airport runway.

(2) Make sure something is broken before you rush in to fix it. If you're a mid-career professional who just changed jobs, you probably see all sorts of problems that need fixing. But sometimes an inefficient system will be maintained because it works best in the company culture.

(3) A Big Idea most likely requires a Big Investment in equipment, real estate or cultural change. For example, several airlines unsuccessfully tried to graft Southwest Airlines systems into their own existing organizations. If you've got a Big Idea, you may have to go out on your own, start from scratch and get your own funding.

(4) Real creatives pay their dues to learn what works. Many author wannabes are surprised at how formulaic most published writing can be. Novels (especially genre fiction) follow fairly rigid guidelines. And while artists have a wide range of options, they study and apply principles of color, composition and design. I once took a drawing course, where I was surprised how much technique is involved.

(5) Implement innovations only when you're truly knowledgeable about your industry. For example, I was invited to review a book that defied publishing conventions. The author deliberately mixed memoir and how-to genres.

But memoir readers expect a very different reading experience than self-help enthusiasts. And bookstores won't know how to classify her book, which means readers and reviewers won't see it.

Of course, if you are a big picture thinker, and if you have the drive and access to resource to implement your ideas, you can end up like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or the others who changed the landscape of business. But I have a hunch that before they thought out of the box, they invested a lot of time studying the inside in all four corners.

Bottom line: When employees - especially entry level - seek creativity, I suspect they really want autonomy: control over their own time.